wideawake, you might need so more caffeine. He wasn’t after free money, he needed to restructure his debt. The balance of power is out of proportion in favor of these zoning boards. You should be free to do what you need to do unless someone can show it will cause significant harm. If he lost the vote 5-7, it doesn’t seem logical that his plan was going to be a detriment to the community.
Read the article.
He was hoping that he would get his property rezoned as commercial in order to inflate his property value.
If the zoning board gives you a special exception that boosts your property value from $100K to $125K which you can then borrow against - you are getting free money.
It isn't the zoning board's responsibility to help people restructure their debt by doing them special favors.